During many years, the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill (NJ) was a regular stop for Ray Charles. In 1975 his group was engaged during the week of Memorial Day.* On May 24 band members taped the concert, right at the board. The sound quality of the cassette tape that I heard may be low, the documentary value of this recording is high. Ray, the band, and The Raelettes were in great shape that year.
* Bobby Blue Bland opened the show. ** This was the the engagement where Johnny Coles rejoined the band after losing his eye earlier in the year.
- Our Suite (Ray Charles Orchestra)
- Intro
- The Bright Lights And You Girl
- Georgia On My Mind
- You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It)
- Come Live With Me
- Feel So Bad
- Rock Steady (The Raelettes)
- I Can't Stop Loving You
- Everything's All Right
- Hold On, I'm Coming (The Raelettes)
- What'd I Say
- Outro
The 13-minute instrumental Our Suite (#1) gave plenty of room for solos by Leroy Cooper on baritone, Andy Ennis on tenor, Phil Guilbeau on trumpet, Johnny Coles** on flugel, John Bryant on drums, and Bob Coassin on trumpet, showing again how free - and good! - the Orchestra played in '75.
In #3 Ray took unusual liberties in his vocals. #8 got a Why didn't you tell me/It's All Right-intro. #10 is the ditty only known from the 1975 Madrid concert. #12 was a very loose mixture of known finale elements, with an I Love The Way You Love Me-intro, the ominous pandemonium on el. piano known from other '75 concerts, a yodel and a few lines of I'm Gonna Keep On Singin', and Shake That Thing. During the outro Ray gave special credits to Ernest Vantrease: "the Deacon of our congregation", "playing the hell out of it".
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